| Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza import restrictions: Brazil
On 15 May 2025, Brazil confirmed an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) on a commercial breeding poultry farm in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In response, Great Britain has temporarily suspended imports of the following avian commodities from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul for consignments produced on or after 15 May 2025:
Further information can be found at: Imports, exports and EU trade of animals and animal products: topical issues – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) |
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| France Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza vaccination programme
The United Kingdom approved France’s Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) vaccination programme in commercial duck farms on 22 May 2025. This means that, from 22 May 2025, France is able to export meat and meat products obtained from ducks vaccinated against avian influenza and kept in establishments complying with additional testing requirements agreed between Great Britain and France. For more information, please read the ‘poultry and poultry products’ list of EU and EFTA countries approved to export animals and animal products to Great Britain. |
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| Reminder: Ban on Personal Imports to Prevent FMD
The Government has taken measures to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease (FMD) following a rising number of cases across Europe. Since April, it has been illegal for travellers to bring cattle, sheep, goat, and pig meat, as well as dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use, to protect the health of British livestock, the security of farmers, and the UK’s food security. This continues to be the case. This includes bringing items like sandwiches, cheese, cured meats, raw meats, or milk into Great Britain – regardless of whether it is packed or packaged or whether it has been bought at duty free. Whilst FMD poses no risk to humans and there are no cases in the UK, it is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle, sheep, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals such as wild boar, deer, llamas and alpacas, and the outbreak on the continent presents a significant risk to farm businesses and livestock. FMD can cause significant economic losses due to production shortfalls in the affected animals, as well as loss of access to foreign markets for animals, meat and dairy. For more information, please read the updated guidance here and the press notice here. |
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| FMD – Avoid processing delays at the border
We understand that enhanced controls for Hungarian, Slovakian and Austrian FMD-susceptible meat products, milk and milk products may present a challenge for traders, and we appreciate your cooperation and support for keeping Great Britain FMD-free. The following are actions that you and/or your agent can take to help mitigate some of the most common causes of processing delays that we’re currently seeing at the border. Please pass to your agent for information. Where a load or container consists of a mixed load or groupage, there is an increased risk that the SPS hold on the customs declaration will not be lifted if one or more of the consignments in the load requires an inspection. Example: an agent or importer has correctly submitted 3 separate CHED import notifications in IPAFFS for 3 consignments in a vehicle’s load. All 3 are correctly recorded on the customs declaration in CDS. Checking on IPAFFS, two of the consignments have been cleared as valid but one is still undergoing documentary checks and has not yet been cleared. An SPS hold is showing on the customs declaration in CDS. Once all 3 CHEDS are cleared as valid by the Port Health Authority, the SPS hold is removed from the customs declaration and HMRC/Border Force can release the load if no further customs checks are required. Action to take: Traders and their agents are asked to check the status of their consignments via IPAFFS and CDS and where necessary discuss options to minimise delays with the Port Health Authority/Local Authority (PHA/LA) at the point of entry. These may include devanning and separating the consignments. This is likely to require the resubmission of the customs declaration for the load.
2. Removal of consignments for inspections. If your supplier off-loads a particular consignment before it reaches Great Britain, and you or your agent cancels the accompanying CHED import notification in IPAFFS, it is important that you or your agent also amends the pre-lodged customs declaration in CDS to remove the relevant commodity codes and CHED reference number for the consignment. This also applies if you ask the PHA to cancel the CHED on your behalf. Action to take: You or your agent should amend the customs declaration to remove any cancelled CHEDs. If the customs declaration is not amended, the SPS hold will persist because CDS is not able to access the inspection decision for the cancelled CHED. Consignments will not be released until the customs declaration is amended and the SPS hold lifted. In exceptional cases where the CDS entry cannot be amended, the National Clearance Hub can issue a manual release. NCH will NOT release holds for any other reason. 3. Consignment remains under an SPS hold in CDS Where a consignment is still under an SPS hold on CDS despite all SPS checks being complete and all CHEDs showing as valid on IPAFFS, this may be due to inconsistencies in data entry between the CHED import notification and the customs declaration. Action to take: Traders and agents should check both submissions and amend as necessary. The most common errors include:
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APHA – Border Trade Newsletter – getting it right at the border 22 05 25
